Believing

Dr. Seuss taught all of us about fantasy, about nonsense, and about red fish and blue fish. I’ve tried all my life to hold on to my sense of the absurd, to my willingness to look silly, to the dreamy sense of infinite possibility that I felt as a child, rocking in a rowboat on Lake Ponchartrain, staring at the sky.

I think it can be done. I don’t think you HAVE to grow out of something if you love it. I used to tease my daughters that if they declared there was no Santa, there would no longer be any need for me to pretend there was (in other words, no presents!).

To this day, in their mid-twenties, they will stand up in public and staunchly declare that they believe in a fat home invader who exploits flying reindeer. Even though it is something of a family game, I think they like leaving that impossibility open to possibility, and so do I.

If you want to be a writer, or artist, or designer, software engineer, you are already acquainted with your imagination. You know that when you imagine something, you can probably create it. But have you really applied that force of belief to yourself? Can you remember what it was like to believe in something as wholeheartedly as you believed if you stayed awake long enough you would hear jinglebells? Can you believe in yourself that hard? Can you create yourself as a bestseller? Can you create yourself into a gallery, or a business, or even just a fitter version of yourself?

I believed in my creativity, and that creativity gave me dreams, big ones, and mine came true. I believed hard in family, and I have created and clung to a loving one. I believed hard in love, and I have love. I believed hard in fairytales, and people who told them, and now I am one of those people. Not everything came easily, not everything happened the way I’d planned (ha!) but it’s an adventure, a roller-coaster and a great source for storytelling.

Whatever it is that you want for yourself, put on your Santa hat, grab your fairy wand, mount your unicorn and go find it. When you believe, it might happen. When you don’t believe, it can’t happen.